It’s been confirmed that there won’t be any functionality for crossplay parties in the upcoming Battlefield 2042 beta. However, the feature will be available in the final game when it launches on November 19. As a result, players will need to stick to parties purely within the PlayStation, PC, or Xbox ecosystem for the time being.
A PR rep for Battlefield 2042 confirmed this news today in a story first reported by ScreenRant. There, they explained that it, apparently, all comes down to the versions across each console. While the game is technically the same on every platform, there are some subtle differences on last-gen devices resulting from developer DICE scaling the game back due to technical restraints.
As a result of this scaling back, Battlefield 2042 will have smaller maps and only host matches for up to 64-players on last-gen consoles. Current-gen devices will have larger maps and host 128-player matches. These differences are the cause of the lack of crossplay parties in the upcoming beta for the title.
Crossplay will also be slightly restricted in the game when it launches in a couple of months. It will be possible for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S players to play together, but they can’t play with PS4 or Xbox One players. The same is true of PS4 and Xbox One players when it comes to current-gen devices. So the only crossplay parties will be between the same console generations.
The Battlefield 2042 beta was originally set to take place in September but was delayed by a month. Crossplay may be why EA pushed the beta back, though there could also be other reasons that we’re unaware of.
